This new AR attachment puts Android TV on your face

Rokid's AR glasses have an interesting new way to watch movies and TV

AR glasses tend to be thought of as a luxury item only available to the wealthy or well-off, as seen with the pricier Google Glass ($999) and Microsoft HoloLens ($3,500). The market is fairly open to affordable versions of AR glasses since many consumers can't justify dropping over a grand on a luxury device. Rokid, a Chinese tech startup, has filled this void with its affordable AR glasses, and now the company is taking things a step further with an Android TV attachment.

The Rokid Station is an Android TV box designed for the company's AR glasses, the Rokid Max. The glasses alone are a deal at $439, but buying the Rokid Max with the Rokid Station bundle brings the price to $529 if you preorder. The AR glasses are equipped with micro OLED screens capable of projecting visuals equivalent to a 215-inch screen located 10 feet away from the user. This projection effectively provides an immersive visual experience without feeling like you're standing in front of a screen.

The Rokid Station itself looks like a bigger Amazon Fire Stick/Android TV/Roku remote and attaches to the glasses with a cable. You'll find a circular direction pad reminiscent of an Amazon Fire Stick remote or an older iPod. Navigation through the device is the same as what you'd find on an Android TV box like the Nvidia Shield, so you get a home screen with apps optimized for smart devices.

The Rokid Station comes equipped with a standalone 5,000mAh battery for five hours of continuous use. Internal storage is paltry at only 32GB, though this should be fine if you mainly intend on streaming media. A micro HDMI display port lets you easily connect to the Rokid Max or any other compatible AR glasses, or you can even connect it to an external display. It can also connect to and charges your phone with its USB-C port.

It should be easy to get things going: simply power on the Rokid Station and connect it to the Rokid Max, then enjoy Android TV in augmented reality anywhere you want to go. The biggest downside to this is that the Rokid Station requires an internet connection, which can be through Wi-Fi or tethering to a smartphone's mobile data. Once connected, it grants users access to a variety of streaming video apps available on the Google Play Store, like Amazon Prime, Disney+, Hulu, and YouTube.

It's worth noting that you can use the Rokid Max without the Rokid Station. If you connect the glasses to your phone, you can run apps in the AR experience just the same. Since the Rokid Max comes with an HDMI input, it can also be used with gaming consoles — or really anything you could connect to a TV. To its credit, the Station does make things easier to navigate with its tactile remote buttons, and the Android TV UI is better suited for comfortable AR usage than a phone.

After an introductory period with discounted prices, the Rokid Station is expected to go up in cost, but a set price point hasn't been announced.

Jorge is a writer for Android Police. He likes to say he knows mobile phones enough to own an Android, but he has been writing for multiple industries that all revolve around tech. He has upgraded his phone but has never gotten the warranty, because he never had a phone long enough to use it. Upgrades all the way is what Jorge says!